


Donkeys in Costumes

by veryvery



Series: Amira/Mohammed - one shots [2]
Category: Druck | SKAM (Germany)
Genre: Childhood Memories, F/M, Muslim Character, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-30 18:17:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19408738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veryvery/pseuds/veryvery
Summary: Amira and Mohammed share childhood stories.





	Donkeys in Costumes

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!   
> This is the second part of this series. I hope you enjoy!

It had been another warm and stressful shift at work and everything Amira wanted was to get home, have a cold drink and a shower. After closing the front door behind her and yelling a general  _ hello? _ into the seemingly empty apartment, she flung her vest and helmet on the floor, toed off her sneakers and made her way to the kitchen. 

She was in the middle of drinking her second glass of water, when she heard a key turn in the lock of the front door. Remembering that her vest with the logo of the delivery service were still on the floor, she rushed to the hallway and almost collided with Mohammed who was just entering the apartment. 

“What are you doing here?” She tried to distract him from looking at the floor by giving him her brightest smile. 

“I’m supposed to pick up some stuff for my new room, Essam said he didn’t need it anymore. He’s stuck at work right now.” He explained, closing the door behind him and giving her a quick smile back. 

“Do you want...a glass of water?” Nothing else came to mind but she had to get him out of this hallway somehow.

“No, thank you. I was actually just about to get to work.” He bent down to take off his shoes and spotted her vest, then picked it up and showed it to her. “Is that yours?”

Amira sighed and took a step forward to snatch it from his hands. “Yeah, I...I work at Deliveroo but...can you please not tell Omar or Essam?” She tried not to meet his eyes and nervously wrung the vest in her hands. 

“Okay, but why? Are you embarrassed of it?” He righted himself and crossed his arms, giving her a confused look.

“No, I just don’t want them to tell my parents. They wouldn’t want me to work there. You have to promise not to tell them.” She met his eyes and saw that his expression had shifted from confused to concerned. 

“I promise.” He held up his crossed fingers and gave her a reassuring smile. 

“Thank you. I owe you one.” Amira returned his smile and turned around to go back to the kitchen. 

“When I say ‘I promise’, I mean it. No favours owed.” He called after her.

After getting herself another glass of water and something to eat, she passed Essam’s room on the way to her own. Mohammed had been quietly shuffling around in there the whole time and she hadn’t paid him any attention, but now the sound of something falling to the floor made her stop in her tracks.

She knocked at the door and asked: “Are you okay? Do you need help?”:

“Yes, can you come in?” His muffled voice sounded stressed and concerned, so she opened the door and took a careful step into the room. Some boxes and several books laid open on the floor and papers and photographs were strewn all around.

“I was taking something from the shelf, packing up some stuff and suddenly it all fell down.” Mohammed explained, gesturing around with his hands like the chaos in Essam’s room was all his fault. 

“Well, let’s just pick them up and put them back on the shelf. Essam won’t even notice.” Amira suggested and pushed some papers away with her foot to sit down.

He sat down too and together they tackled the chaos. The books were an easy task, but the papers turned to be a complete mess and soon they both looked at each other in confusion.

“Do you think Essam even had them sorted? These are completely random.” He asked and raised an eyebrow reading the paper he was holding. 

“He’s the messiest person I know, so probably not. Let’s just put them all back into a box and hope he doesn’t notice.” So they stacked them all up and soon the only things left on the floor were dozens of photographs and a random assortment of souvenirs and knickknacks. 

Mohammed picked up one of the photographs and studied it. “Is that you? Next to a zebra? Crying?”

Amira moved closer and snatched it from his hands to take a look. 

“Oh my god, I forgot Mama even took this! I was so upset that day because it was my first time seeing zebras and I always thought they were just donkeys in costumes. When I found out they were real, my brothers made fun of me and I cried.” They looked at each other and burst out laughing. 

He only stopped to ask “Donkeys in costumes? Really?” before breaking into laughs again. When they had calmed down, Mohammed took another look at the picture. “You were really cute when you were...4?” 

Amira looked at him, trying not to blush but also slightly offended. “I was 5, okay? I was just small for my age.”

“And now...you’re still small for your age?” He asked jokingly, biting back a grin.

She gasped and swatted him on the arm with the picture. Their eyes met and his look softened, the playfulness from before forgotten for a moment as they just smiled at each other. There it was again, the feeling she had tried to push down ever since the first time they met at the Abiball. Unnamed, unnerving and unexplainable.

“Sorry.” His voice was quiet but more serious now.

She cleared her throat and looked away. “It’s okay.” A blush formed on her cheeks and she tried to hide it by turning her attention back to the pictures on the floor.

Once everything was back in place and he’d gathered up all of his new things, they both plumped down on the living room couch. For a moment, Amira wondered if she should ask him about the ice cream he owed her after their staring match last week but she hesitated. It had been so relaxed between them the whole time and she didn’t want to make it awkward or seem too eager, so she didn’t say anything. 

“When I was 6, we went to one of these petting zoos where they have goats and stuff. We were allowed to feed them and I remember them being all pushy about it. One of them was so fixated on me that it chased me around the whole park almost knocking me over. My dad had to rescue me.” He tried to keep a serious face while telling the story but when he looked at her at the end, they both couldn’t help but laugh.

“Nice to know we both have had traumatic experiences in zoos.” She noted and got up to get them something to drink from the kitchen.

“Water, iced tea or...whatever this green stuff is Essam likes to drink so much?” 

“Iced tea sounds good, thanks.” 

When she got back with their drinks, she remembered what had happened in the hallway earlier. She just wanted to make sure that no one would find out even though she knew that she had to tell her parents about it at some point.

“About my job…” She started hesitantly.

He sat up straight and his eyes searched hers. “Amira, I promised I wouldn’t say anything. Why do you make such a secret about it, though?”

She sighed and looked at the floor, still feeling his concerned look on her. “I want to be sure that I have earned enough money when I tell my parents, so they won’t be as mad when I tell them why I got the job in the first place.” Amira paused and took a sip of her drink before continuing. “You know, I want to live abroad for a year, see the world, make friends, learn a lot of new things but I wanted to earn it myself so that’s why I got the job.”

“Why would they be mad? I know your parents, they just want you to be happy.” He didn't seem to understand her problem.

“I know they do but....they want me to study and go to university, become successful and earn a lot of money so that my future is safe and I don’t have to worry. Not travel around the world and work at DeliverYou.”

“But these two things, they don’t cancel each other out. You can do both. First travel and then study.”

“They probably won’t understand...but I have to tell them eventually and I guess...I guess it just scares me because they put such high expectations on me. I have the good grades and the ambition and the drive. Mama said that she knew I’d get a doctor’s degree on my first day of school.”

“And you will, because these things won’t change. You will always be smart and ambitious and driven. Living abroad for a year won’t change that, quite the contrary, it will teach you so much. Doesn’t matter if you go to Japan or Australia or even Antarctica.”

Amira felt a smile spread across her face. She had not been aware that he knew her that well that he could even list the countries she had been talking about in her Instagram stories. 

“You’re right. I just need the right moment to tell them and maybe they’ll understand. Thank you, Mo.” 

“Mo? Did we just upgrade our friendship? Is that how it works? I get to give you life-changing advice and you get to call me Mo?” He said in a mocking voice. She appreciated him trying to lighten the mood because this conversation had hit a bit too close to home for her just now and she didn’t really know how to move on from it.

“Don’t flatter yourself. I just think it’s easier, but if you want to be called Mister Razzouk, life coach and therapist, then I can do that too.” She joked and raised an eyebrow at him, suppressing a smirk.

He chuckled and shook his head, smiling at her like an idiot until his phone pinged and he checked it. “Our session has to end here, Miss Mahmood. I have to get this stuff home before I have to go to class.” 

She tried not to look disappointed when they both got up, making their way to the door. As much as it scared her to talk about personal things, she just couldn’t help opening up to him. In that moment, it felt like he would never judge her for being afraid or asking him to keep a secret. Even the bantering just came natural to them, like they’d known each other for years and not just a few weeks.

When they reached the door, he turned to her, still smiling, always smiling. “Thank you for helping me and before I forget: Can you give Essam his keys back?” He pulled them out of his pocket and placed them into her open palm, his hand lingering only a moment longer than it needed to before he pulled it back.  Her eyes flitted to the keys in her hand, not daring to look back at him, as a warm feeling washed over her. 

While she was trying to ignore the fluttering of her heart, he turned around to pick up the box they had packed.

“Can you open the door for me?” It took her several seconds to comprehend what he said but then she hurried to push down the handle and open it. 

He maneuvered the large box through the door and before he could turn back around to say goodbye, she blurted out a quick “Bye.” and closed the door behind him. 

After a moment of hesitation, she could hear him calling out a “Bye!” outside too, followed by his footsteps on the stairs. A sigh of relief escaped her as she leaned on the hallway wall. She instantly regretted being so brief with her goodbye but her heart rate was still not back to normal, as she was clutching the keys like he had placed the most special gift into her hand.

_Get it together, Amira._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for part 3!


End file.
